


A Tear Filled Lake

by ButterscotchCookiesAndBroccoliBois



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Birthday, Character Death, Death, Dream Needs A Hug, Dream is Not Okay, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, I was too tired to read over it so let's hope it's okay, No Beta, Sad Dream, first draft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:15:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29421462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterscotchCookiesAndBroccoliBois/pseuds/ButterscotchCookiesAndBroccoliBois
Summary: Dream goes back home for his birthday.
Relationships: Dream (Undertale) & Nightmare (Undertale)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27





	A Tear Filled Lake

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this. I was going to update my main focus, but then I watched some Dream /Dreamtale twins angst so I wrote this in one night and I don't have the energy to read over it lol.
> 
> Any way, here's some sad Dream stuff.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream waved goodbye to the AU he had just helped as he stepped through his portal. He had just spent the last few hours spreading some of his positivity there and was finally finished. It was hard work, but it was good work.

Looking around the desolate world he had chosen, he walked with purpose towards the centre. It wasn't too far away and he arrived within minutes.

The centre point for this world was a tree stump. Long ago it had been a tree that stood tall and proud until It happened and the tree fell. Until his mother died. That day was so horrible that the little guardian seldom allowed himself to think of it. It was the day he lost everything, his home… his brother.

He sat down next to the stump. Reaching into his pocket, Dream took out three things. The first was a picture of him and his twin when they were little. The next was a little handmade purple teacup with a little note inside. Finally, the guardian took out a little brown paper package. Inside tho his package was a cupcake of a marbled purple and yellow colour and a thin half-used-up candle.

Setting everything up, he unwrapped his treat and put the candle on top of it. Using his magic, he lit the candle. Gazing down upon the picture he sang himself a lonely happy birthday. This day centuries ago, he had lost it all on a day when he was meant to be celebrating his tenth birthday with his twin.

Forcing back a wave of tears, he blew out the candle. Biting into his little cupcake he tried not to think of the various knick knacks scattered around the stump, piling up every so often at rocks or difficult to move objects. Everyone of them was dirtied and worn by age.

When Dream looked down he knew that this new one would join its brethren, yet there was still a part of him that hoped some day his brother would take his gifts when he visited the next day. Connected souls meant they always had an idea of where the other was, but nothing more. Always aware of the other, yet the connection felt so void and empty, like there was once something there, but it died long ago.

He neatly folded up the empty cupcake case and put it in his pockets. It almost reminded him of- no that thought simply wouldn't do.

Taking the crown from his head, looking at it, he couldn't help but wish for the times when it hadn't been a weight on his head, a reminder of all his failures. A reminder of how he wasn't good enough. A reminder of how no matter what, no matter if he put everything he had into it, he would never be able to do enough. To fix anything. To help anyone.

Even in the last world he was in he heard them saying that he should have been doing more. Yesterday he had to fight Nightmare again, he barely managed to come out on top and when the fighting had stopped and repairs were underway, the people got angry at him for not trying hard enough to save them.

People were always saying that sort of thing about him. That he should have tried harder. That he wasn't good enough. That he needed to do more.

So he had tried harder. He had stayed for longer. He fought harder. He put his all into everything. He didn't sleep anymore and he ate only when he was given food by the rare grateful person. And yet… they still said those things about him. All his extra effort meant nothing, he was still failing the people he tried to help. Therefore he just must not be good enough. So he trained anytime he got the chance. He refused to do anything that didn't help him help others.

All the while he wore his crown, a gift from their mother when they turned eight. It was both a sign of her love and of their duty. But after they got them, everything seemed to get worse. It was like a switch had been flicked. The villagers were suddenly more demanding, his brother started coming home with injuries he claimed were an accident, but that, unbeknownst to him at the time, were really from the villagers.

Some days Dream wished that he could take off his crown and no longer be a guardian. He never would, but the thought was enticing all the same. However he had a duty to uphold, one which there was no escape from.

Sitting there at the stump, the little guardian allowed himself to be consumed by his own thoughts.

It's his fault people don't like him.

It's his fault for not being good enough.

It's his fault he couldn't save everyone.

It's his fault his brother hates him.

It's his fault his home is dead and empty.

He only ever got in the way.

If not for him, so many more people could be helped.

If not for him people's families and homes would be okay.

If only he weren't so utterly incompetent.

It was his fault he was always in pain. A bitter ache running through his soul eating away at him even as he fought it. Even as he tried to keep his head above the waves. Every time they said the truth about what they thought of him the ache grew deeper. Every time they used him for his aura the ache grew deeper.

The ache grew deeper and deeper until it became an inescapable casm.

Every fight chipped away at his will and made it harder to get back up again.

It was so hard to keep going when all he wanted to do was stop.

Dream’s head was spinning. All he could think of were his failures. He brought his knees to his chest as he gripped his crown tighter. He had messed up so much when all he wanted to do was the right thing. His soul shrieked in agony. The tumultuous thoughts raging widely in his mind block out everything else. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't feel.

He gripped the crown harder again and it began to bend under the force of his grip. Tears rolled down his face as he wished for things to be different.

_ Crack. _

Dream was swallowed further by his own desperation. He remembered the friend he had once. They used to be so close, then one day he overheard his friend talking to someone else. They said that he was an idiot, that the only thing he was good for was his aura. He ran away after hearing that and vowed never to let himself be put in that position again.

_ Crack. _

Dream was dragged down deeper when through the fog he spotted the old photo of his brother. If only he had tried harder to help him. If he had just been less of an idiot he might have saved his brother. Sweet little Nightmare. He didn't deserve any of what happened to him.

_ Crack. _

The pain reached a fever pitch and stabbed through the fog clouding his brain. He wanted to scream and writhe in agony! He wanted to leave and get help! Instead he sat in silence. He deserved this punishment. He had earned it.

_ Crack. _

At this final Crack, a surge of unfathomable pain shot through the entirety of the little guardian's being. And then- nothing. He felt nothing. Distantly the sensation of falling apart registered in his mind, but it was barely there. Suddenly out of tears to cry, Dream found himself drifting off into a sleep he would never wake from.

**********

Nightmare had been reading a book in the living room when he felt it. It was like a sudden, painful, disconnect from something you've known your whole life. He got up so quickly he startled a few of his boys. There was no time to waste, he needed to see what had happened now.

He knew what had happened. He knew from the moment he had felt it. He just couldn't bring himself to admit it. He didn't want to believe it could be true.

Ignoring the questions, he opened a portal to where he last felt it. Stepping out onto the grass he looked around, desperately trying to find when his brother had gone. When he reached the top of the hill where the stump stood he stopped dead. On the stump was one of those stupid little trinkets Dream would leave every year. Beside it was a picture of him as a kid. He didn't even know there were any pictures of him back then.

He ignored the thought that Dream would never leave something like that behind.

Moving closer, he searched for any signs of where his brother might have gone. ‘Perhaps into the dense forest behind the hill? Perhaps-?’ His train of thought stopped abruptly. In front of him was something he never imagines he'd see.

There, lying on the ground, was a simple crown, a cape and a pile of dust.

The breath was knocked out of the skeleton. He didn't know what to do. He reached out and almost touched them, before yanking his hand back as if it was burned.

‘I need to… I need to.... collect the dust.’

He created a portal to the base and started the search for a jar. His boys asked him questions, but he couldn't hear them over the screaming of ‘HE'S DEAD! HE'S DEAD! IT'S YOUR FAULT! IT'S YOUR FAULT!’ repeating itself over and over in his head.

It took a while, but eventually he found a clean, empty jar. It was the first jar he had come across. Silently making his way back through the living room with the jar, he opened back up a portal to his dead AU.

There were no questions this time.

Kneeling down next to the pile, Nightmare carefully scooped the dust into the jar. He shook it off of the cape and crown too, not losing a single spec of it.

Within him, he felt the new powers begin to emerge. His brother was well and truly gone.

Somberly, he made his way back through the portal to his base. Once on the other side he curled up on the ground and broke. His boys came out and tried to comfort him, but nothing they could say or do could change the now infallible truth:

Dream was dead.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Poor Dream.
> 
> I don't really have anything else to say other than I'll be doing a double upload on 'Unhealthy Escapism' again to make up for not updating today.
> 
> Comments and constructive criticism is welcomed.
> 
> Have a swell day. Remember you are importan ^-^🍊


End file.
